teens

This morning's New York Times has another editorial supporting sex-related legislation that might help young people. Specifically, it deals with legislation making its way through the New York State Senate and Assembly that would mandate safe houses and treatment instead of juvenile detention or jail for teens caught engaged in prostitution.

"Sexually exploited children can be helped by the law or victimized by it, depending on where they are from. An Eastern European child smuggled into this country as a sex slave is offered protection under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act. An American child who flees abusive parents and ends up selling her body on the streets is labeled a criminal and sent to the juvenile equivalent of prison.

That, thankfully, would change under a new law being considered by the New York State Legislature that would reform the juvenile justice system so it protects rather than punishes exploited children." (Read more)